Events to benefit Russ Bus start FridayPeople who want to help The Russ Bus in their efforts to restore hope to the homeless can do so when they eat out next week during fundraising events that start Friday. The first "Preachers Got Talent" show and silent auction will begin at 7 p.m. Friday at the Center for the Arts on the campus of Russellville High School. Doors open at 6:30. Cost to attend the talent show for preachers, pastors and ministers will be $10 for adults and $5 for c...

Living on purposeAs a chaplain for a veterans health care facility, I meet a lot of interesting men and women on a regular basis. I facilitate Bible studies and lead worship services throughout the week and really enjoy the private conversations with these military heroes. Recently, I had the privilege to spend some time with a man named Tony, who is a Vietnam veteran. He suffers from the effects of Agent Orange and has recently lost both legs from diabetes an...

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BY DR. BILLY HOLLANDThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Church Happenings ( )Fair Park Baptist Church Sweetheart banquet Fair Park Baptist Church, located at 615 S. Knoxville Ave., will have a Sweetheart Banquet fundraiser at 5:30 p.m. this Saturday. All proceeds will help their youth group missions. Tickets are available online at www.ticketor.com/fairparkbaptistrsvlar . Reservations for tickets to be picked up at the door can be requested by emailing fairparkbaptistrsvlar@gmail.com. Plainview, Ola and Waveland Method...

Catholic Schools Week completedThe annual National Catholic Schools Week kicked off last Sunday and ended on Friday at St. John Catholic School. Each day the school celebrated a specific thing or group of people — the church on Sunday, vocations on Monday, the students on Tuesday, the community on Wednesday, the nation on Thursday and faculty, staff and families on Friday. The celebration began with an all-school mass and open house where children sang on Sunday. On Monday,...

Perspectives on painWhile allowing that suffering exists, there are differing perspectives on how to account for it. For instance, some reason that if God were benevolent, he would not want persons to suffer. And if he were omnipotent, he would not allow them to suffer. Consequently, he is not one or the other, or simply does not exist. My father left the church in his teen years. When asked why he had done so, he referred to hypocrites in the fellowship. Of cour...

Church Happenings (020317 )First Freewill Baptist Church in Atkins singing convention The annual Arkansas River Valley Singing Convention will be at 10 a.m. Saturday Feb. 11, at the First Freewill Baptist Church in Atkins. A potluck lunch will be served. For more information, please call 501-662-4535. Plainview Ola Waveland United Methodist Church news Plainview United Methodist Church will host hand chime practice at 5 p.m. on Wednesdays. Plainview United Methodist Chu...

RebellionThe book of Micah is a marvelous book. Few passages of Scripture are better known than Micah 6:8 which adorns the alcove of religion in the reading room of the Library of Congress, "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?" (NASU) Even though it is a relatively short book, less than six pages in my Bible, it is brimming with prophecies of ...

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By PASTOR STEVE ELLISONThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

The Bible is too trueI often hear that the Bible is full of errors, myths, and historical inaccuracies. But, I have yet to find that these challenges to the authority and credibility of the Bible cannot be reasonably answered by the proper application of the rules of evidence and the canons of literary criticism. No. I am not troubled by any of these allegations against the integrity of Scripture. What I am troubled by is how true the Bible is to the realities of ...

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BY DON ERWIN
Arkansas hospice chaplain The Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Church Happenings (012717 )Pine Ridge Free Will Baptist monthly concert Pine Ridge Free Will Baptist will host a concert at 6 p.m. on Saturday. Refreshments will be served after the concert. Pastor Hank Duval invites the public to this free concert. Seventh Day Adventist Church Oils of the Bible The Russellville Seventh Day Adventist church would like to invite the public to experience the health benefits of essential oils at 10 a.m. on Sunday. The church is located at ...

Church Happenings (012017)Pleasant Grove Community Church breakfast Pleasant Grove Community Church will host breakfast at 8:30 a.m. Saturday. Brother Aaron Elmore will be the guest speaker. Scottsville Revival Scottsville Word of Life will host a revival featuring Rev. Dean and Peggy Caldwell, from Sunday through Wednesday. Service times will be at 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Sunday and 7 p.m. Monday-Wednesday. For more information, call 479-331-3206. Prayer Breakfast Th...

Touched by compassionJesus was "moved with compassion, when a leper came to Him as recorded in Mark 1:41, It says "And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, the leper, and he was cleansed." It says that Jesus was gripped with compassion; He had an instant reaction to a human need. The leper asked Him if He was willing. I believe the leper had total confidence in Jesus ability, but he also knew he was an outcast in the society that he l...

Church Happenings ( )RAMA breakfast Russellville School superintendent Randall Williams will be the speaker at the 2017 Russellville Area Ministerial Association’s Pope County Judge’s Prayer Breakfast. The breakfast will be at 6:30 a.m. Feb. 1 at the Russellville First Assembly of God Church. The breakfast is free, but reservations are requested. For more information, call 479-968-2622. Atkins Methodist to hold Valentine's banquet The Atkins United Methodist Churc...

Demonic influenceMatthew 8:31 tells the story of demons who knew that they were going to be forced to leave two men who were demon possessed, and they asked Jesus to cast them into the swine. One significant thing about this verse is the evidence that demonic spirits have to have a body to operate in. They can have an influence in society, but someone has to be willing to allow that influence in or, worse yet, to allow that control as we seen here in the two m...

Nearer To GodPerhaps you are familiar with David Brainerd (1718-1747), faithful missionary to the Delaware Indians. I have pasted below his Jan. 1, 1746, journal entry written when he was 28 years old. It is sobering and convicting and encouraging to me and I suspect that it will be to you also. He was orphaned at the age of 14 and would die from tuberculosis 22 months after this journal entry. Brainerd died in the home of Jonathan Edwards, who published B...

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PASTOR STEVE ELLISONThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

The great lightOne of the recurring themes of both the Old and New Testaments is that the "fear of the Lord" is the beginning of wisdom and leads to all sorts of temporal and eternal benefits. Smack dab in the middle of Isaiah's Immanuel Prophecies, we find this warning in Isaiah 8:12-15, "You are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread. The...

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BY PASTOR STEVE ELLISONThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

The fifth gospelGranted, there are only four actual gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. However, the Holy Land is sometimes referred to as the fifth gospel, since it adds considerable insight into the gospel narrative. Having taken study tours to the region on several occasions, and lived in Jerusalem for four years, I would heartily agree. For instance, Luke allows that it was his intent "to write an orderly account" of what had transpired (Luke 1:3). Ho...

Church Happenings (010617 )Falling Water Church revival The January revival for the Falling Water Church will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday with Bro Roy Smith of Scottsville preaching. The revival will continue at 6 p.m. Sunday with Bro Larry Don Smith of Hector preaching. For more information, call Pastor Leonard Bob Chisum at 501-745-2491. Plainview-Ola United Methodist church news Plainview Methodist Church will host its prayer shawl ministry from 9-10 a.m. on Monday. Pla...

Church Happenings (123016 )New Year’s Eve service Falling Water Church will host a New Year’s Eve service at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Bro. Arlis Burks of Alpena will preach. For more information, call Pastor Leonard Bob Chisum 501-745-2491. Catholics Returning Home St. John Catholic Church at 1900 W. Main St. will conduct a Catholics Returning Home series at 6:30 p.m. on six consecutive Wednesday evenings in the Adult Catechetical Center beginning Jan. 11, 2017. These sessio...

Prepare for fruitful labor in 2017Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day supposedly brings prosperity. Here are four "Ps" that will definitely make you more productive. If you plan to be faithful and fruitful as a Christian in 2017, try this recipe. Reaffirm God's Purpose! Is God's purpose for you crystal clear? "God works everything together for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be co...

Happy New YearMost societies around the world attach at least some significance to the changing of the calendar from one year to the next. Here in the U.S. we celebrate the changing of the calendar by watching football, putting on feasts, throwing parties, and making resolutions to improve ourselves in some way. As we prepare to change our calendars, perhaps it would be instructive to consider how God started the Jewish ecclesiastical calendar in the Old Te...

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BY PASTOR STEVE ELLISONThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley